


only memories (fading memories) blending into dull tableau

by bloodredcherries



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 22:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17517041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodredcherries/pseuds/bloodredcherries
Summary: Mary Anne and Charlie's trip to California for Jeff's high school graduation goes from tolerable to worse when they discover who lives in the house next door.





	only memories (fading memories) blending into dull tableau

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I apologize for the belatedness of this fic. Your prompts really grabbed me for this dynamic and up until now I have not been in the right headspace to do the idea justice. I hope you enjoy!

“What is he doing here?” Mary Anne heard Charlie ask in a whisper, as he stopped short in front of Dawn and Jeff’s house, his gaze drawn in the direction of the house next door, which had previously been the home of Dawn’s friend Sunny, and her father, and had been recently sold, judging by both the for sale sign that was on the lawn of the house, and the young family who was parked in the driveway, a moving van parked in front of their vehicles. “Do you know who that is?” 

 

She squinted in the direction of the woman and child, and tried to place them, before shaking her head. It had been awhile since Mary Anne had been in Palo City, after all, and being able to place people was a skill that she decidedly lacked. “No, I don’t,” she said. “Why would I? I don’t live here. I guess we could ask Jack or Carol…” She rang the doorbell, already regretting her decision to stay at Dawn’s father’s instead of at the hotel that her father and Sharon had gotten a room at for Jeff’s high school graduation. It was just -- Mary Anne loved Charlie, and Mary Anne loved her father -- she knew that it had been awkward for her father to realize that she was growing up, and dating Charlie Thomas, and she hadn’t wanted to set them up for a week of  _ even more _ awkwardness than was already going to be prescribed, given the challenges of getting their combined families together for seven straight days of social interaction. It was Mary Anne’s idea of pure hell, and she had only agreed to come along for Jeff’s sake. He was her stepbrother, after all, and it was important to her that she support his achievements. She didn’t know what precisely had set Charlie on edge about the people that were moving in next door to the Schafers, but it had to be  _ something _ about them that bothered him. “I knew that Mr. Winslow was moving, but I don’t know who those people are.”

 

The door to the truck that was parked in the Winslows’ driveway slammed shut, and Mary Anne watched Charlie practically jump a mile, though, since there was a giant tree blocking the view, she doubted that it was noticeable to anyone but her. She craned her neck to see an additional child had hopped out of the pickup, followed by a man. The man was wearing a ball cap, and sunglasses, and was dressed in a rather nondescript manner: cargo shorts, and a Mets t-shirt, which looked faded with age. She opened her mouth to question Charlie further when the door opened. 

 

“Who are you two talking about?” Jeff demanded. Mary Anne bit back a sigh. 

 

“Do you know anything about the people that moved in to Sunny’s old house?” She questioned. “Their names...anything?” 

 

“The dude from the paper,” he supplied. “Some lame ass new sports columnist. Mary Anne,” Jeff said, before she enveloped him in a hug. “And your  _ new  _ boyfriend. Come in, before the new lame ass neighbors notice us.” 

 

Charlie shouldered their luggage, and followed her and Jeff into the house, which was pretty much as Mary Anne remembered it. Part of her wanted to chastise Jeff for his rudeness about the new neighbors -- she could only imagine what her father would have to say if he behaved like that around him -- but the greater part of her knew that said neighbors had freaked Charlie out for some reason, and she decided that figuring out what that reason was was paramount to fruitlessly lecturing a teenage boy on being civil. 

 

“Where are Jack and Carol?” 

 

“They went out,” he said, and he shrugged his shoulders. “With Gracie. Shopping, I think. You two ditch Mom and Richard?”   
  


“We went out on separate flights,” she explained. “Charlie and I flew out from New York.”

 

“They’re not staying here, are they?” Jeff questioned. 

 

“No, they got a hotel.”   
  


“You guys, you get a paper?” Charlie interjected. Jeff rolled his eyes. “I want to read the sports.” 

 

“Yeah, we get the Palo City Times,” he said. “Don’t think it’ll have any of your East Coast sports, though. We’re West Coast all the way. I’ll go get it for you,” he said. “Dad was reading it earlier.” 

 

“Thanks,” he said. “Those people next door…,” he told her, before he trailed off, and ran his hands through his hair, “you know how my dad got remarried? Patrick, I mean.” 

 

“Yeah, I remember,” she said. “When he lived in Sausalito.”

 

“I don’t think he lives in Sausalito anymore,” he muttered. “I think that he lives here.”

 

“Don’t you think it’s possible that you’re just extrapolating?” Mary Anne led Charlie over to the couch and forced him to sit down on it, and she joined him, relieved to finally be able to sit down and relax. “I mean, there are plenty of sports columnists out there, aren’t there? I thought he was running a restaurant.” Kristy still spoke to her father, off and on, and seemed to be deluded into thinking that Mary Anne deeply cared about her updates. She was too polite to correct her. 

 

“Yeah,” Charlie mumbled. “Maybe.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “I just…”

 

“Just what?” 

 

“You’re probably right,” he said. “I’m just on edge, you know. This is a big deal.”

 

“What’s a big deal?” Jeff drawled, having returned to the room, the day’s paper in his hands. “My lame ass high school graduation? You sound like my mom.” He rolled his eyes. “This what you want?” 

 

“Yeah, thanks,” Charlie said. “And, it’s a big deal to me that I was invited, it shows that people are taking my relationship with Mary Anne seriously.” He cleared his throat. “That means a lot to me.” 

 

“It means a lot to me, too,” Mary Anne added. “You didn’t have to.”

 

“Yeah, well, he’s your boyfriend,” Jeff said. “Would’ve been a bitch move to make you ditch him for a week in this hell.” 

 

“What’s their last name?” Charlie questioned. “The new neighbors?”

 

“I  _ told _ you,” he said. “The new sports columnist. Editor. Whatever he is. He’s not from around here. Dad said that he was going to ask Mom if she knew him. He’s from Stoneybrook.”

 

Mary Anne blanched. “Patrick Thomas?” 

  
  


***

  
  


“Mary Anne is a common name, you worry too much,” Patrick told Zoey as he they stood in front of their new home, supervising the movers moving the contents of their moving truck into the house. “So what if it was the name of Kristy’s best friend? There are plenty of people in this world that share that name. Mary Anne Spier would never be here. Are you kidding? Richard would never let her out of his sight when I was still shacking up with Edie. There’s no way she’d ever have the guts to move across the country.” He rolled his eyes. “Besides, the people that live next door are the Schafers.” 

 

“I didn’t say that she lived here,” Zoey said. “I’m just saying that is it possible? Didn’t you tell me that she and Kristy ran into while they were on a cross-country road trip? At Candlestick Park?” 

 

“Yeah, but, that was years ago,” he said. “Even if it  _ is _ Mary Anne, what the hell would she want to do anything with me? I’m not exactly anyone in Stoneybrook’s favorite person.” 

 

“Maybe Kristy is with her,” Lindsay interjected, coming up beside them. “I mean, she was with a dude, but, maybe Kristy was in the house?”

 

“Don’t worry about things you and your sister shouldn’t be worrying about,” Patrick chided, as he lit a smoke. “Kristy will come around, when I want her to come around. You know that, don’t you?”

 

“I just--”

 

“I told you, things with Kristy run on my terms, not anyone else’s,” he said, his tone pointed. “Certainly not going to have Mary Anne in my business.” 

 

“I thought she was a nice girl, when Kristy brought her that time,” Zoey insisted. 

 

“She wouldn’t even stay with us for more than a weekend!” Patrick exclaimed. 

 

“She has a sister out here, doesn’t she?” She mused. “She probably wanted to see her. Not  _ everything _ that people do is meant as a personal insult, Patrick, you realize this, right?”

 

He scowled. “Please,” he said. “Richard Spier has had it out for me since Edie and I got divorced, and I don’t think that he liked me all that much beforehand,” he said. “You know just as well as I do that he wouldn’t let her spend anything more than the bare minimum of acceptable time at our house, and I wouldn’t be surprised, if the sister was just a ruse. Dawn. What kind of name is that?”

 

“The gentleman that we bought this house from had a daughter named Sunny,” she said lightly. “People name their children different things all of the time.” 

 

“I just...wish that Lindsay and Marybeth weren’t so…” He trailed off. “She’s  _ just _ their half sister.”

 

Zoey glared at him. He shrugged his shoulders. The truth was that Zoey disagreed with how Patrick handled things with Edie and the kids, and Patrick disagreed with Zoey’s disagreeing with him, and with how Edie and the kids treated him, which was with entirely less respect than a man of his caliber deserved. They seemed to have never gotten over the fact that he had needed to leave them behind in Stoneybrook to chase his dreams, even though it had been  _ years _ since he had needed to do that. Kristy was the only one of the kids that even bothered to give him the time of day, save for David Michael, whose letters he would throw out without reading. 

 

Charlie and Sam? Forget about it. 

 

They seemed to view Watson as their father, and, well, if Watson was willing to open his wallet so that he didn’t have to? Patrick was more than fine with that. 

 

Zoey, on the other hand, seemed to think that he owed them an apology, which was just ridiculous. 

 

“Even if she  _ had  _ a sister,” he said. “That was a male voice that said her name. They have a son, the people next door,” he remembered. “And a daughter. But she’s only a couple years older than Lindsay.” 

  
  


Patrick had met his next door neighbors only briefly, a couple that was roughly his and Zoey’s ages, respectively, named Jack and Carol, but he would have known if he was walking into an elaborate, Stoneybrook related trap, wouldn’t he? This was absolutely ridiculous, he thought to himself. Zoey had gotten him all paranoid. 

 

“I spoke to them,” he reminded her. “You’re all just imagining things.”

 

“Would it be the worst thing in the world?” 

 

“Yes!” He exclaimed. “Are you serious? I don’t want them knowing where I live. Mary Anne would probably give David Michael my new address. Absolutely not.” 

  
  



End file.
